


A Good Day

by nightcamedown



Category: Leverage
Genre: Community: leverageland, Gen, Missing Scene, Nate Ford Is The Worst Mentor Ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-24
Updated: 2011-10-24
Packaged: 2017-10-24 22:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/268626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightcamedown/pseuds/nightcamedown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene for The Carnival Job. Hardison has concerns, Nate has low standards, and Eliot bleeds prettily in the background (as he is wont to do).</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Day

**Author's Note:**

> Written for leverageland.

"You need to go to a hospital," Hardison said, the second time Eliot started to drift off. He twisted around in the passenger seat to try and make eye contact. Eliot had ended up in the back next to Sophie when they piled into the van, and at this point he wasn't leaning against her so much as he was listing like a sinking ship, like her shoulder was the only thing keeping his head above water. He was getting blood and sweat and carnival grime all over her jacket, her hair was picking up bits of mirrored glass from his, and as far as Hardison could tell she hadn't even noticed. On Hardison's scale of badness that was about a twelve. Out of ten. "I'm serious, man. Ten out of ten doctors agree stopping a Tilt-a-Whirl with your face warrants a checkup."

"Hospitals are boring," Parker muttered, "and the nurses ask too many questions." She was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the van, pulling glass from Eliot's hand with a pair of tweezers that she wielded as deftly and quickly as she did a lock pick. She was perfectly calm, even cheerful, and Hardison was going to try hard to forget how she lit up when Eliot gave her permission to touch him with poky things. She looked up when Eliot didn't agree with her. "Hey. Open your eyes." She tucked the tweezers in her pocket and reached up to pinch Eliot hard just above his elbow. "Wake up, Sparky."

Eliot growled at her, half-heartedly, and didn't open his eyes. Parker just shrugged, but Hardison couldn't shake the feeling that this was wrong. Eliot looked about as bad as Hardison had ever seen him, Nate was taking a turn that meant home instead of hospital, and that was without even getting into whoever the fuck Roper was and what exactly it meant when Nate said Do your worst and...this just wasn't right.

Either he said that out loud without meaning to, or Parker had been working on her empathy, because she leaned forward and patted him on the knee. She was making the face that meant she had no idea what his issue was, but she was being supportive anyway. He covered her hand with his own, distracted, and looked at Nate. "Nate - "

"We're here." Nate turned off the engine, then held up one finger. Hardison sat back in his seat. Sophie and Parker ushered Eliot out of the back of the van and inside, linking hands behind his back and making it look he was walking under his own power. Most people would be fooled, though Hardison doubted anyone who cared enough to conduct ongoing surveillance on Nate's building would be.

Nate drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, giving Hardison the evaluating look that Hardison, once upon a time, had thought would be reassuring. Thought it would mean that Nate was taking him seriously as a mastermind-in-training. Turned out, getting the look usually just made him feel like he'd been solving for x all day and Nate was about to tell him it was an essay question. "Today was a good day, Hardison. One of the better ones. You gotta see the big picture."

"He almost - "

"Almost," Nate said, in the vaguely paternal tone that meant he was either fucking with Hardison, bonding with him, or some combination of the above. Worst. Mentor. Ever. "Like I said, a really good day."

Hardison blinked at him. "You got some seriously low standards, man."

Nate grinned. "See? You're catching on."

"I said that like it's a bad thing, you understand. I can try again if that wasn't clear."

"Aw, you'll get there." Nate turned and got out of the van. "Come on. Let's see how RoboParker does with first aid."

"She ain't a search and rescue dog, Nate. And it's not RoboParker, it's Parker 2000, okay, there's a big difference between - are you listening? Nate? Nate?" Hardison sighed and scooped up the robot, petting it on the head as he climbed out of the van and followed Nate into the building. "Just ignore him, little girl. Man's got a real gift for being unhelpful."


End file.
